Bring Me To Life
by turbomagnus
Summary: What happened when Penelo unlocked her Level Two Quickening didn't go exactly like anyone expected. Humor, non-pairing.


Summary: What happened when Penelo unlocked her Level Two Quickening didn't go exactly like anyone expected.

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy XII and all related characters and situations belong to Square-Enix and are used without permission or intent to profit.

Warning: Not a serious story. In fact, it's most likely 'Plot-What-Plot?'. Definitely a 'what the devil was he thinking when he wrote this'...

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"Bring Me To Life"  
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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Penelo was teamed up with Balthier and Fran again and she even knew why; Vaan and the Princess were attracted to each other, just unable to figure it out even though everyone else already had. She had known Vaan long enough to know that if something was hidden, he'd find it by sheer dumb luck if nothing else, but it would take a while for him to figure it out; and as for Princess Ashe, she was still clinging to her husband's ghost and her anger at Archades too tightly to see anything. Vaan and Ashe were attracted to each other and the only one that was emotionally detached enough to be around them for long periods was the former Captain of the Order of the Knights of Dalmasca who had spent the last two years as an Archadean prisoner after being framed for regicide by his own brother who happened to be a Judge in the Archadean Ministry of Law. Privately, Penelo liked to think of the two groups as 'Team Hero' and 'Team Sane'... which, considering the way Balthier looked at the world as though life were some kind of play and he was the leading man was admittedly a bit of a stretch for being considered sane; fortunately, Fran didn't seem to have any of the same quirks that Penelo's fellow humes did, leaving the Viera seemingly the sole oasis of sanity when Penelo felt surrounded by craziness.

Not that Penelo herself didn't have her moments, both ones that she would and ones that she wouldn't admit to having, and at the moment if she had to deal with another hyena attacking them in the pouring rains of Giza Plains while they were trying to make their way south to Ozmone Plains and eventually to Jahara, she would be having a moment of complete and utter freaking out ranting, raving craziness. Unfortunately for the Dalmascan, the universe has a sense of irony served with a side of a cruel streak. When the trio was attacked again, it was not by a hyena, but by a gigantoad jumping out of one of the numerous gullies which the Rains had filled with water and attacked Balthier with a strong blow from its webbed front claw. Before her teammates could react, the young Rabanastan had her Oak Staff in her hands and was giving the fiend what-for.

"Just leave us alone!" Each word that Penelo shouted was punctuated by a blow from her weapon.

It only took a few blows before the gigantoad fell to the ground dead, but Penelo continued to beat it despite that as she ranted.

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Just stop it already! Stop attacking us! Stop it already! I'm tired! I'm hungry! I'm cold and I'm wet and I just want it to stop!"

"Energetic, isn't she?" Balthier asked his companion in amusement, causing Fran to shake her head.

"The ways of Humes are strange indeed," the Viera remarked, "Even amongst themselves."

"Well, I don't think you'll find many who'll argue that," Balthier agreed, "But at least it keeps things interesting, wouldn't you say?"

Instead of verbally responding, Fran merely gave him a sideways look and walked away past where Penelo was venting, headed towards the site where in the Dry the Nomads would camp.

"I suppose that's as much an answer as anything," the sky pirate shrugged. The knowledge that Fran was more than capable of looking after herself left him comfortable with her going ahead while he remained to make sure that nothing took advantage of Penelo's 'distraction'.

After a few minutes had passed, Balthier found himself wondering if the young girl were truly taking out her frustrations or if she had moved on to tenderising the meat for a gigantoad steak dinner as she were still hitting the fiend's corpse with her Oak Staff. It spoke to the durability of fiendish bones that it hadn't been battered into a shapeless mass of damage rarely seen, actually, which was probably why such bones were oft used in the makings of arms and armor. It also spoke to the strength of anger that she hadn't slowed and to the narrow-sightedness of it that she only seemed able to see her target instead of the world around her. Had they not already dealt with the hyenas in the area before being ambushed by the gigantoad in the first place, Penelo would have been leaving herself open to being attacked from behind or even surrounded. To the best of Balthier's knowledge, the young girl had no self-healing Gambits active, so if nothing else he merely had to wait for her to exhaust herself and then carry her to the campsite, however long that might take.

Balthier only hoped it was not too much longer, the rain was doing hideous things to the delicate threads of his shirt. He despised trudging from location to location being exposed to all manner of environmental and bestial nastiness; that was why he had an airship and a skybike - before the skybike's destruction, which he sometimes considered making Vaan or Ashe pay for since it was her family treasure and his attempt at theft crossing Balthier's own that had caused said destruction; so he could get somewhere, steal something and leave before anyone knew it without having to do said trudging. Trudging was for players of the company, never the leading man, after all. A sound from above drew Balthier's attention away from Penelo's activities and to an incoming figure in the sky above. He supposed it was good fortune that what he heard and saw was neither airship nor fiend, even if its being friend was yet to be determined. Slipping and sliding in the mud, the approaching Moogle came skidding to a landing and stopped only feet away from where the Sky Pirate stood.

"Kupo, I hate flying in the rain and landing in the mud, kupo," the Moogle complained, Balthier not entirely sure that he was meant to hear it.

With calm politeness born of getting into tense situations enough that getting out of them had become second nature, Balthier adjusted his shirt cuffs and remarked, "Something I can help you with, might I ask?"

The Moogle ineffectively tried to shake some of the rainwater off before answering, "Message for one Penelo, Cartographer's Guild says she was seen in this area, kupo!"

"Ah. I'll take that for her," Balthier nodded at the Moogle and glanced over to where Penelo was still shouting. "She happens to be... presently indisposed."

"Kupo, Berserk spell?" The Moogle asked as he handed over the missive.

"Not quite," the Sky Pirate admitted, "The strain of fiend attacks is starting to get to her, unfortunately."

"Makes me glad I can fly above most of them, kupo-kupo, take care, all!" The Moogle gave a jaunty wave before flapping the wings that were really too small to be the source of flight for its form and taking off into the air.

"Hm. And I thought small talk was meant to refer to the gravity of the conversation, not its length," Balthier remarked, calmly sliding his finger under the wax seal and working it free to open the envelope.

Apparently, the arrival of the Moogle had been enough to break Penelo's tunnel-vision, because she now stopped her continued assault on the deceased gigantoad and made her way over to where Balthier was reading the letter that had arrived.

"Ah, well, this is interesting," the Sky Pirate remarked.

Penelo looked at him and blinked, "What is it?"

"You've just earned the License Points needed to qualify for a Level Two Quickening License, congratulations," Balthier informed her.

The girl rolled her eyes, "Remind me again whose idea this Licensing system was?"

"Well," Balthier adjusted the frill of his cuff, "Look at it this way - at least we're not forced into restrictive classes that dictate what we're allowed to learn and use. Instead, we can learn and use anything as long as we're licensed. Much better that way, wouldn't you say?"

The idea of a Sky Pirate supporting something like this honestly confused the young Rabanastan, "But... someone's still saying what we can and can't do..."

"Yes, well, at some point some restrictions have to be made," Balthier shrugged, knowing there were different kinds of laws and different kinds of freedoms and it was best not to confuse them. "Would you rather someone who's not trained and ready for it kill themselves with a Blood Sword or the like or have to prove they know how to use it safely beforehand?"

"What's a 'Blood Sword'?" Penelo asked, not having heard of such a thing before that she could recall.

Balthier shook his head, "Hm, my point exactly. It's something you'd best stay away from for the time being, it seems."

Further discussion was put off by the appearance of a large shell-like fiend bursting its way free from the sodden soil.

"Another one?" Penelo almost cried out in mixed despair and resignation.

Balthier, however, had a different view of the situation; "That Great Tortoise would make rather nice practice for your new Quickening, wouldn't you agree?"

Realising that he was right, Penelo focused for a moment, gathering energy from the faint Mist around her before unleashing it as she whispered the name of her Quickening, "Evanesence..."

Then it seemed as though something else had taken control of her body as she found herself beginning to sing, "How can you see into my eyes like open doors?..."

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Author's Note: Come on, I can't have been the only one to have made the association... be honest...


End file.
